Summer 2004

The University of Colorado Denver

Volume 7, Number 1

The Hartford/Jahnigen Center of Excellence (COE) in Geriatrics recently awarded Assistant Professor Stipends to Cari Levy, MD, and Wendolyn Gozansky, MD, MPH, and Fellowship Stipends to Rebecca Brown, MD, and Heidi Wald, MD.

Dr. Levy will use her second year of COE Assistant Professor Stipend funding, in conjunction with an award from the American Medical Directors Association, to continue her research on improving the use of advance directives in nursing homes. Further information about Dr. Levy and her research interests can be found within the Profile section of this issue.

Under her third year of COE funding, Dr. Gozansky plans to continue her investigations of hormone replacement therapy and its role in preventing cardiovascular disease in older women. Dr. Gozansky's research is also supported through a Pfizer/Society for Women's Health Research Faculty Development Award.

Drs. Cari Levy and Wendolyn
Gozansky have received
Hartford/Jahnigen COE
Assistand Professor Stipends.

With her COE Fellowship award, Dr. Brown will complete a second year of geriatrics fellowship, and under the mentorship of Nancy Donelan-McCall, PhD, will work to identify risk factors for emergency department visits, emergent hospitalizations, and permanent nursing home placement among participants in the Program for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE). She also plans to complete coursework in biostatistic methods, epidemiology, and clinical outcomes

assessment and to participate in creating an administrative/clinical continuity experience at the Denver PACE site (Total Longterm Care). In addition to her Fellowship Stipend, Dr. Brown was also awarded Hartford/Jahnigen COE grant funding for analytic support of her research efforts.

Drs. Rebecca Brown and
Heidi Wald have been awarded
Hartford/Jahnigen COE
Fellowship Stipends.

Dr. Wald will use her second year of COE Fellowship funding, in combination with a National Research Service Award (NRSA) Primary Care Fellowship, to continue her research related to perioperative care for older persons. She also plans to pursue coursework toward the Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) degree at UCD.

We continue to accept applications on a rolling basis for Hartford/Jahnigen COE Assistant Professor Stipends, Fellowship Stipends, and grant awards. For further information, or to receive an application, please contact Danielle Holthaus at Danielle.Holthaus@uchsc.edu or 303-724-2424.

Former Hartford/Jahnigen COE Faculty Development award recipient, Evelyn Hutt, MD, recently received funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the VA Health Services Research and Development Service (VA HSR&D) to study implementation of guidelines for treating nursing home acquired pneumonia (NHAP). These grants will permit Dr. Hutt and her collaborators to build upon her earlier work in this area, which had been initiated under the COE program.

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The mission of the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs (AIANP) within the UCD Department of Psychiatry is to promote the health and well-being of American Indians and Alaska Natives by pursuing research, training, continuing education, technical assistance, and information dissemination within a biopsychosocial framework that recognizes the unique cultural contexts of this unique population.

Under the leadership of Dr. Spero Manson, the AIANP has two well established centers to conduct research on issues relating to American Indian and Alaska Native elder health: the Native Elder Research Center and the Center on Native Elder Health Disparities.

The NERC was established to
explore and address barriers
to improving health care
for older American Indians
and Alaska Natives

The Native Elder Research Center (NERC) was established to explore and address barriers to improving health care for older American Indians/Alaska Natives. The goals of the NERC are to:

v Augment already active partnerships with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities that ensure access to and involvement of elders, their families, and local systems of care in the aging research process;

v Capitalize on an extensive network of collaborative links to identify, recruit, and sustain a cadre of AI/AN investigators willing to commit themselves to developing their potential as scientists specializing in aging research;

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